


Henry Reed's Mystery Yarn

by hhertzof



Category: Henry Reed - Keith Robertson, The Boxcar Children - Gertrude Chandler Warner
Genre: Crossover, Diary/Journal, Gen, Knitting, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 07:15:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2842661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/pseuds/hhertzof
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henry Reed gets tangled up in a mystery with some new friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Henry Reed's Mystery Yarn

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lirin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/gifts).



**June 30th**

Here I am, back in Grover's Corner for another summer. I haven't seen Midge yet - her family whisked her off to Wisconsin for a week right after school let out. Their reasoning was very unclear, or that's what Midge told me in her last letter. I'm not sure if their reasoning was unclear to her or unclear in general, but the end result is that I've been here two days with strict instructions not to start any schemes or businesses until she gets back on Sunday. Given that the letter mostly concerned an unsolved jewelry robbery and the trip was shoved in as a P.S., I really can't blame her for not being clearer. Robberies are much more exciting than trips to Wisconsin.

It's been very boring.

* * *

**July 2nd**

Midge will be back tomorrow. It's about time. I've been very good and followed her rules to the letter. The only thing I've done since I got back was learn to knit. I know knitting isn't normally a thing boys do, but it's my aunt's latest passion and she dragged me to Hannah's Yarns when she discovered she didn't have enough fluffy pink yarn. You can guess how interested I was in that. She had trouble finding it so she spent ages with the clerk. And it wasn't like there was anything interesting in the store either. Just yarn, long sticks (needles), and other odd implements. 

I take it back there was one interesting thing. On the table of the shop there was a huge ball of yarn with a sign saying that whoever guessed closest to the number of yards would win all the yarn in the ball and a basket of supplies (the basket was beside it). I wasn't at all interested in the prize but I couldn't resist trying to figure out the number of yards in the ball mathematically. It was tricky because there seemed to be both thick and thin yarns in the ball and they would take up different amounts of space. So I really couldn't tell how many layers there might be. I was leaning over to get a closer look when Aunt Mabel called for me to go. Puzzle notwithstanding, I couldn't wait to get out of there and on to something more interesting, such as watching paint dry.

I thought I heard the clerk calling us as we left the shop, but Aunt Mabel was in a hurry to get to the post office before it closed and when I looked over she had both her pocketbook and her bag of yarn.

Cedar street slopes downward. I don't know if you've noticed this, if you've ever been to Princeton, but I did then. The shouting had gotten louder and people were staring at us or behind us, so I looked back to see what was going on and was shocked to see the huge ball of yarn bearing down on me. I grabbed for Aunt Mabel and made a sharp left and the next thing I knew I was flat on the pavement, yarn tangled round my feet. I lay there a little while, trying to catch my breath, and that was when I noticed a loop of yarn caught in my belt buckle. I surreptitiously unhooked it, because there are certain things that adults don't need to know. As I was slowly helped to my feet I saw the clerk gathering up what was left of the yarn and surreptitiously shoving it in a big shopping bag, but I didn't think much of it.

It's okay, though. My arms are a little scraped and I've got a sprained ankle, but it could have been worse. And the next day, the owner of the yarn shop (whose name turned out to be Robin, not Hannah) turned up with the huge ball of yarn and the basket of supplies. It turned out that the reason it was going so fast was because it wasn't yarn all through - she'd used a bowling ball for the center to confuse people even more and when it finally stopped at the bottom of the hill, the black ball was clearly visible. I tried foisting this knitting bounty on Aunt Mabel, but she said she had all the yarn she needed and that she couldn't think of anything to use that tangled mess for. Robin wouldn't take it back because she said she couldn't sell it after it had been lying in the street. 

It turns out knitting is a good distraction when you've read all the books you have and you're stuck sitting on the sofa with your leg propped up. I'm about half finished with a scarf for Midge, and I think I got all the gravel out. Also, in the basket was a flier for the Reed & Glass Craft Fair on Saturday, July 10th. I think I've found her secret summer plan, but I might make her stew a bit.

* * *

**July 3rd**

Midge is back! I'm still supposed to be keeping my weight off my ankle, so I haven't gone any farther than the porch, but she ran over when she saw me there. It turns out she also learned to knit this year. She wanted to keep it a surprise because of the whole Craft Fair thing, but now that cat is out of the bag, so to speak. Apparently, the owner of Yarns & Yarns, a combination yarn and bookstore, had mentioned that they were having trouble finding a location, so Midge volunteered my barn. She was also horrified about the bowling ball (she'd put several guesses in herself).

I should be annoyed, but I hadn't come up with a good plan, and if there are two or more yarn shops in Princeton, it should draw a good crowd. Besides, I won't be able to do much hiking for the next few weeks so it will be good to keep busy. I did tell her she'd need to find other workers, and she said that she had it all covered. Ms. Albright had the grandchildren of a friend of hers coming to visit for the summer and she was sure they would help out. Adults are always quick to volunteer kids they know but half the time they turn out like the Sebastians and not people you really want to be around.

They better be hard workers. The barn really needs a fresh coat of paint and we don't have much time to get it ready.

* * *

**Still July 3rd**

The Aldens showed up this afternoon shortly after I finished the last entry. They'd already bought paint (I think Midge called them), and were ready to get to work. Oddly the oldest boy (two years older than me) is also called Henry, but that was okay, because everyone calls me Hank. The others were Jessie, who's my age, Violet who's the same age as Midge, and Benny, who's four years younger than Violet. They also brought their dog, Watch. He and Agony looked at each other suspiciously for a few minutes then Agony barked and Watch barked and Agony led Watch off somewhere. I think he was showing off for his visitor.

We adjourned to the barn so we could see what needed doing. I brought a pad of paper and a pencil to make a list and a box of trash bags and the other Henry borrowed the ladder from the garage. We would have asked first, but Uncle Al was at work and Aunt Mabel had run to the supermarket. Looking at it with fresh eyes, even I could tell it needed a lot of work. The outside had faded badly since last year and the inside was full of the remnants of Midge's and my previous projects and junk left by my mom and whomever else had used the barn.

We started by piling up the bigger bits of things in and around the bathtub that we'd kept worms in. Jessie found containers for smaller things like nails and other hardware, and we filled two trash bags with the rest. While Henry brought those to the garage to wait for trash day, Violet found a broom tucked in one of the corners and started sweeping.

Around then,Aunt Mabel showed up with cookies and ice cold lemonade, so we took a break and admired what we'd accomplished so far. It was clear we still had a lot of work to do to make it ready for something like a craft fair, so I got out the pad of paper and the pen and made a list which I've copied below.

  * Inspect pile of board along side, see if we can't make some furniture to reduce the number of tables we needed to rent. - Henry and me
  * Tablecloths - Violet
  * Painting the barn inside and out - everyone.
  * Painting the sign - Violet and me.
  * Talk to Mrs. Albright and the other sponsors of the craft fair about what sort of setup the crafters would need - Midge and Jessie
  * General assistance with whatever needed doing - Benny



The Aldens thought it was very strange that there had been a bowling ball in that ball of yarn. Benny even went as far as to call it a mystery and that got us on to trading stories about things that had happened to us. They even once lived in a Boxcar. I wouldn't mind doing that. Or even camping out in the barn one night. They thought that was a great idea. So we decided that after the Craft Fair, we'd have a sleepover in the barn complete with dinner cooked over a fire and all the other accoutrements of outdoor living. Grover's Corner is quiet enough and if we had both dogs with us, even Aunt Mabel and Uncle Al couldn't object.

When Jessie and Midge walked back to the house they found themselves in a quarrel between Aunt Mabel and Uncle Al. Apparently Aunt Mabel had told Uncle Al to take two bags full of old games and jigsaw puzzles over to the senior center, and now she was claiming he hadn't. Midge probably would have kept silent, but Jessie was clearly the responsible sort and explained that he'd probably taken the wrong two bags. At which point Uncle Al got that look he sometimes gets around me and Midge and said, "Of course there were four bags. Except there weren't. There were only two bags in the garage when I packed them in my car and drove them over. 

At that point Jessie, Midge and my Aunt and Uncle went into the garage to look. Jessie was the one who noticed the dogs in the corner, sitting on a blanket and the dust marks which clearly showed the imprints of two bags, next to the two bags still sitting there, and the drag marks which showed that something had been pulled over to the corner.

I don't blame Agony. He and Watch probably went into the garage to get out of the sun before Aunt Mabel came back and wanted something comfortable to sit on.

It was at that point that we decided to call it a day. There was a lot of stuff to do, but less than we'd expected and given that I still couldn't put my full weight on my left foot and that Independence Day was tomorrow and none of the people we needed to talk to would be around and the hardware store would be closed, there really wasn't anything we could do for a couple of days. Instead we decided to meet up at the fireworks in Princeton.

* * *

**July 4th**

I've described fireworks in my other journals so I don't think I need to describe them here. You've probably seen better. 

The important thing is that we ran into Robin at the fireworks and through careful questioning we (well, mostly the Aldens) discerned the following things:

  * Hannah is her aunt. She's either ill or on holiday. Robin said different things at different times.
  * She's running the shop as a favor.
  * Jessie, Violet, and Midge talked about knitting with her. It was all Greek to me, but afterwards they said that she'd used terms wrong.



Admittedly, if she's running the shop for her Aunt, she might not be a knitter or crocheter herself, but why wouldn't her Aunt get someone who understood the business to take care of it while she was gone? There's also the question of why the bowling ball was in the yarn. And why did she arrange the contest in the first place? Midge says Hannah never did things like that, but that Robin just showed up about a month ago and Hannah hasn't been seen since.

This is worrysome, but the Aldens have solved more than one mystery, so maybe we can figure out what happened to Hannah before the Craft Fair.

**July 5th**

Did I forget to mention that when Midge arranged for us to host the Craft Fair, she negotiated both a fee and expenses with the committee that was sponsoring the Fair? This was very clever of her as we needed a lot of paint and supplies.

Jessie and Midge convinced Mrs. Glass to drive them into Princeton to talk to the shop owners. The others started painting the outside of the barn today. I helped for a little while, but it was hot and my ankle was still aching so I went inside the barn and started sorting through the pile of useful stuff. There were a bunch of shorter boards than the pile we were going to use for tables, so I piled those up to one side. I thought maybe we could put shelves up in case anyone wanted to use them to display their work.

After that I started the slow job of emptying the tub. I was debating whether we wanted to leave it in the barn or try to move it outside, when I heard a crash of thunder and then everyone rushed inside, soaking wet. Thankfully they'd only done part of one side, so there wasn't much work lost, and we'd put all but the paint we were working with inside the barn. Aunt Mabel had also packed us a picnic lunch so we wouldn't have to come back to the house. I think she was afraid we'd track paint inside.

Benny announced it was time for lunch and nobody argued. I think they just wanted time to dry off before going back to work, but who was I to argue. I had missed the rain completely.

**Still July 5th**

We spent the afternoon working on the inside of the barn. The rain stopped for a little while so I was able to send Benny to borrow Uncle Al's saw, lathe and some sandpaper and Henry and I worked on the shelves. Violet decided that the inside didn't really need to be painted - it hadn't been before and was using a bucket of rainwater to sponge down the walls instead. Henry was better with the tools than I was, so I let him cut them and smooth them with the lathe and then I sandpapered them.

One odd thing that happened. During the lull in the rain, two man stopped by the barn. A Mr. Brown and a Mr. Green. The reason I say _he said_ is that a few minutes after he appeared, Benny came back from the house with the tools and Henry very deliberately introduced Mr. Green before Benny could say a word.

At the time, though, I didn't know what was going on, so I just went along with it. The men said that they were strangers in town, and wanted to know the way to Hannah's Yarns. They asked a lot of nosy questions and if it had just been Midge and me, we might have avoided answering some of the questions, but the Aldens seemed happy to answer any and all questions from Mr. Green, so we followed their lead, though Midge might have told them more than they ever wanted to know about our previous businesses and somehow we got on to the subject of Mr. Apple and his grass, so I dragged the conversation back to knitting, expecting their eyes to glaze over, but the next thing I knew, Mr. Brown was explaining to me how to make a cable, using sticks and a ball of twine we'd found while cleaning. I have to say that knitting is a fascinating subject once you know what's what. You can make all sorts of interesting patterns if you start putting in mistakes (like not knitting the stitches in order) deliberately. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Green's eyes had started to glaze over and he started looking pointedly at his watch. I pretended not to notice, because Mr. Brown was only about halfway through his explanation, and I had a bet with myself as to whether Mr. Green would let him finish. He did and the two men drove off.

After the Aldens left, Midge agreed with me that they probably knew him under a different name, though we we were both sure that Mr. Brown was a stranger to them. We agreed that we'd wait and see whether they'd explain what was going on.

* * *

**Still July 5th Again**

After Midge left, I sat down with my knitting. I hadn't made much progress since we'd started working on the barn, but I thought I could have it ready to surprise her at the Craft Fair. I doubted it was good enough to win a prize, but then I never thought our painting would sell, and now I have to be careful where I look in the Glass' living room as I still have trouble keeping a straight face when I see it hanging there.

My knitting was going smoothly. I thought about trying cables, but I was more than halfway done with the scarf and thought it might look strange if one end was cabled and the other wasn't. So I just knit in garter stitch while Uncle Al watched something on TV. He made a few strange comments about my knitting but he always makes strange comments and I've learned not to pay attention to them.

I started getting caught up in the cop show that he was watching, and wasn't really looking at my knitting when something caught on one of my fingers. At first I thought it was another piece of gravel, but when I looked down it was way too shiny. It took me a few minutes to work it out of where it was caught in the yarn, but when I had I realized that it was a lady's golden earring with a bright clear stone. 

I looked up but both Uncle Al and Aunt Mabel were caught up in the show. They hadn't noticed a thing. I quietly gathered up my yarn, gave an ostentatious yawn and said that I was tired from all the work we'd done on the barn and that I was going to bed early. Given that it was nearly 9pm, I got away with the ruse.

When I got upstairs I carefully spread the yarn out on my bed. I wondered if the earring was Robin's, but she hadn't come looking for it, so I suspected it wasn't. I found two more earrings and a gold necklace. The necklace's pendant had all these little curly bits of gold and several of them had caught in the yarn. And then I found what I thought was a sharp black stone, at first. Further inspection showed that it was a piece of pottery glazed black. I stared at it for a second. Then, gathering up the shard of pottery and the earring, I slipped out the back door to speak to Midge. The TV was still blaring in the other room so my Aunt and Uncle never noticed a thing.

Once Midge and I were sitting on the back porch, I showed her the shard of pottery and the jewelry and she came to the same conclusion I did. 

We both had a lot of ideas about what to do with the information. We talked about going to the police but they'd probably take credit for solving the robberies, or they might not believe us, even with the jewelry. We could go to Robin and accuse her of the robbery, but that might end badly for us or it might turn out that she wasn't the culprit and she might get mad at us. In the end we decided to put the objects in a safe place and sleep on it.

On the way back I made a detour to the barn. We still hadn't cleaned out the bathtub, so I knelt down, dug a hole and buried the objects in a small box that Midge had given me. I smoothed down the dirt carefully and dumped some of the other stuff back on it for good measure.

As I got into bed that night, I thought of the Aldens. Supposedly they had solved mysteries before. I'd have to check with Midge first, but maybe they'd know what to do.

* * *

**July 6th**

Midge agreed with me about telling the Aldens, so when they got here, we did. Things happened very fast after that. Jessie went into the house and made a phone call and about an hour later, Mr. Brown and Mr. Green drove up to the barn. That's when we found out that Mr. Green's real name is John Carter and he works for the Aldens' Grandfather most of the time, but sometimes he also helps out the FBI. Midge and I found out, the Aldens already knew this. The other man was called Rob Weaver and he also worked for the FBI. The Aldens didn't know this either. I insisted on checking their badges, like they did in the movies. 

I didn't think the FBI handled robberies, but when Mr. Weaver gave us his real name, Midge squealed. It turns out that Hannah's last name is Weaver too, and Rob - Robin Weaver is her nephew. The woman who claimed to be Robin Weaver was a phony. Her real name was Melissa Pickering and she was wanted for several jewelry robberies. She'd hid the jewels in a vase that had also been stolen in the robbery and wrapped it in yarn knowing no one would disturb it till the contest was over. We don't know yet why she chose to hide out in the yarn store, but Rob Weaver promised to tell us when they found out.

* * *

**July 10th**

The Craft Fair was a complete success. The barn was ready early yesterday, so we spent the rest of the day messing in Aunt Mabel's kitchen making refreshments to sell. I can now cross making fudge and pulling taffy off my list of traditional pastimes of the modern American teenager that I wanted to experience. I promise to explain how to make them when I'm less tired.

Melissa Pickering has gone to jail along with her accomplice. It turns out that the contest was rigged. She was going to announce her partner was the winner, knowing that no one would know that they knew each other, and give her the ball of yarn. After Hannah returned, Melissa planned leave Princeton and meet her partner out of state if not out of the country. The whole thing was very convoluted, and I can't believe they got as far as they did, but they might have gotten away with it if the ball of yarn had stayed on the table.

I finally met the Aldens' Grandfather and he's really nice. He and Uncle Al hit it off. They were talking about how we have a lot in common, but I think that's just one of those strange things that adults say. I do know we could never have got this ready in time if it wasn't for their help though.

Lots of people exhibited at the show. All four of the local yarn shops had tables, and a lot of people showed off what they made. Aunt Mabel brought out this delicate lace shawl that she'd made last winter and it won a prize. Now that I've tried knitting I have a lot more respect for how much work goes into hand knit objects. I didn't finish the scarf for Midge, so I didn't display it, but Rob (Mr. Weaver asked us to call him that) says that knitting things always takes longer than you expect. That's alright. I'm nearly done, and it might be better as an end of summer present anyway. Maybe I can even make her a matching hat.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure this fits the prompts (either set of prompts) exactly but you had so many good ones I tried to fit them all in.


End file.
